[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Buddhist Literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha) › [Taishō Tripiṭaka (Chinese Buddhist canon)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho) › [法苑珠林](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122) › 90.4 # 法苑珠林 90.4 法苑珠林 90.4 - **Language:** Classical Chinese ### [90.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.90.4) 惟茲戒德本願深重。救生利物。稱斯為最。是以受之甚易。持之稍難。若非精翫護持。大果何容得證。恐差之毫氂。失之千里。若其小過覆藏。則為難滅大罪。發露更是可原。故知有過須悔得入七眾。守愚不懺長棄三塗。所以此之一章通明道俗持犯損益。若是居家白衣。曾有微信受得戒者。不勝名利。失意有違。故此兼明。若是悠悠白衣。業識風馳昏沈財色。好貪名利。樂著五欲。不信佛法者。此定罪人非此所明。今時述者。出家僧尼及優婆塞等。恐乖佛教虛染名利。故今偏說。若是上品白衣。見佛呵責出家人罪。即自勸勵。省己不為。出家清虛高慕玄軌。尚有失意乖違被佛詰責。我等白衣無慚無愧。公然造罪。晝夜匪懈。未曾恥改。所以如來棄捨我等。不蒙教誨。即自改過息意不犯。譬如智人先誡己身。他人見責亦自改悔。故書云。見賢思齊。見不賢而內自省。若是下品凡愚無識之人。見佛呵責犯過眾僧。唯加輕笑退敗善心。不自思忖愚戇之甚劇於畜生。亦如醉人墜臥糞坑嘔吐狼藉屎尿污身。仰視岸人却呵不正。此亦如是。是故如來雖欲救拔無其出路。故經云。譬如有人墮在糞坑。全身沒入無髮可拔。知何欲救也。 > Verily, this virtue of the precepts is rooted in vows profound and weighty; for saving living beings and benefiting creatures, it is praised as supreme. Therefore, to receive them is very easy, but to maintain them is rather difficult. If one does not meticulously contemplate and guard them, how could the great fruit possibly be attained? One fears that an error of a hair's breadth leads to a loss of a thousand li. If minor faults are concealed, they become great sins hard to extinguish; if disclosed, they are all the more pardonable. Thus we know that when there is a fault, one must confess it to enter the seven assemblies; clinging to folly without deśanā, one is discarded forever in the three destinies. Therefore, this single chapter comprehensively illuminates the benefits and detriments of maintaining and violating precepts for both monastics and layfolk. If householders in white robes once had slight faith and received the precepts, but, overcome by fame and profit, lost their mindfulness and transgressed, this is therefore also addressed here. If they are ordinary white-robed people whose karmic consciousness gallops like the wind, infatuated with wealth and sex, craving fame and profit, delighting in attachment to the five desires, and having no faith in the Buddha's Dharma, these are definitely guilty people and not what is illuminated here. What is described now concerns ordained monks, nuns, upāsakas, and the like; fearing that they will contravene the Buddha's teachings and vainly be tainted by fame and profit, this is now especially expounded. If they are superior white-robed folk, seeing the Buddha rebuke the sins of monastics, they will immediately encourage themselves, examining themselves so as not to commit them: 'The monastic life is pure and open, aspiring high to the profound tracks, yet they still lose mindfulness, transgress, and are interrogated and rebuked by the Buddha. We white-robed folk have neither shame nor remorse, openly committing offenses day and night without ceasing, never feeling disgraced or reforming. Therefore the Tathāgata abandons us without gracing us with teachings.' They then correct their faults, quiet their minds, and do not transgress. It is like a wise person who first cautions his own person; seeing others rebuked, he also reforms himself. Thus the text says: 'Seeing the worthy, think of emulating them; seeing the unworthy, examine oneself within.' If they are inferior, ordinary, foolish people lacking understanding, seeing the Buddha rebuke the saṃgha of monks who commit faults, they only add contemptuous laughter and ruin their good minds, not reflecting that their extreme folly and stupidity is worse than that of beasts. They are also like a drunkard who falls and lies in a cesspool, vomiting messily, his body soiled with excrement and urine, looking up at the people on the bank and instead rebuking them for not being upright. Such people are just like this. Therefore, even though the Tathāgata wishes to rescue them, there is no way out for them. Thus a sūtra says: 'It is like a person who falls into a cesspool, submerged entirely with not a single hair left to pull. How can one save him?' > — English (machine translation) (machine translation) - [Previous: 90.3](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.90.3) - [Next: 90.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.90.5) - [Up: 90](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.90) ## Translations (1) - [English (machine translation)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122~en-mt.90.4) — English, machine translation --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.90.4](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.taisho.2122.90.4) · Pramāṇa